Freesound - 'Nature-Symphonies' by Philip

This is my new series, begun in August 2023, of creatively transformed Wind Chimes in the Wild and perhaps some other recordings of mine. I moved these Nature-Symphonies from the Transformed wind chimes pack as they are a priority category that I want to keep distinct from other altered versions of recordings of mine (in particular, half-speed without further modification).

It started off with what seemed to be just an idle 'doodling' experiment with one of the half-speed versions I'd already created, but the results took me aback in their strong and even intense musical effect and integrity. With that discovery under my belt, including spot listening tests on scattered candidates throughout my output so far, I was clear that it was a no-brainer to make at least one creatively transformed version of each half-speed version that I've made — and indeed likely to produce the odd further half-speed versions to include in this little project.

While still being 'sounds' recordings within Freesound's remit, these transformed recordings double as music compositions of a special type, which I provisionally call nature-symphonies (the hyphen is important), and I expect each to appear on my music compositions site in a special section of the list of my formal compositions.

I did wonder whether it would be more appropriate (i.e., in line with Freesound guidelines) if I posted these versions only on my YouTube (mainly music) channel, and so I asked FS support about that. They were emphatic that although I was talking about rather a grey area regarding appropriateness for FS, they were clear that even these highly musical transformed versions of mine were not just acceptable but very much welcome, as, for FS's purposes they were still 'sounds' recordings rather than composed 'songs'. — One really does get to love Freesound! :-)

What sort of transformations?

Generally speaking, this is just a matter of taking reduced-speed (usually half-speed) versions of certain of my wind chimes recordings (normally, ensembles of chimes) and applying some type of notionally natural-sounding but more or less strong reverberation to them, to a degree that transforms them optimally for a musical effect that gives me an inner 'wow', goosebumps and tingles up the spine and has a definite musical intensity about it. When I get that sort of impression I've got a pretty good idea that I've done something very right, which is very much worth sharing.

I've no taste at all for all the clever and impressive-sounding synthesized sounds that so many people make and share. Yes, they may sound sort-of 'wow', but they leave me cold because of their lack of a nature connection. Without nature connection they cannot have a really deep human connection either, because of the very nature (sic) of human consciousness. Also, such synthesized sounds can rarely if ever have the full range of evocative harmonics that natural sounds have, which so readily give life to music created using them. Could anyone really produce something as telling as https://freesound.org/people/Philip_Goddard/sounds/714184/ from synthesized sounds? — Surely only people lacking in awareness and nature connection themselves would imagine so!

I doubt if I'd have got off the ground with this without the Orilriver reverb VST plugin. I started off with variations of a cathedral-type reverb (I set up four custom presets with different degrees of distance from the chimes within the cathedral), but have found that for some recordings the 'Deep cave' factory preset works much better.

As to why I use reduced-speed versions, really all normal size-range wind chimes produce too fast a succession of notes to come out properly with a significant reverb. The sound is then a rather tedious mess. Also, the chimes sounds at reduced speed really show their beauty, and are already wonderfully transformed just through that one change, and have a fairly to dramatically different musical effect at that octave-lower pitch.

I've mixed the odd recordings in particular Nature-Symphonies, but they're exceptions for particular reasons. Also, I've started making a series of recordings of bamboo chimes (various permutations of solo and combinations from nine — five small, three medium, and one large, each with different tuning, albeit rather approximate), of different sizes and musical qualities, for adding into certain Nature-Symphonies that need such a contrasting element in order to be fully effective.

(… The above notes written in 2023.)
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October 2024 update

Inevitably I got bolder, and have used various mixes of my chimes recordings, and sometimes a particular natural soundscape added in, such as sea rumbling and booming in a deep cave, or a thunderstorm, or a birds' dawn chorus. Then in late July 2024 I woke up to it being worthwhile to make some recordings of flies on the very quiet top of Cranbrook Down, above the Teign Gorge, and see if I could make any Nature-Symphonies from those. That worked out, and we now have a group of those truly unique 'utterances', if that's quite the right word!

It's likely that Nature-Symphony 73 is the last of the flies ones, BUT I'm also expecting to try combining some musical flies with the odd chimes recordings. I think also there are still a few more chimes-only Nature-Symphonies to produce before I draw a line under the project and attend to other things.